One Galway family woke up €5 million richer on Sunday morning, after a trip to Galway Shopping Centre saw them win the multi-million jackpot in the weekend’s National Lottery draw. Last Saturday, the family group purchased a Quickpick ticket from Happy Days newsagents in the out shopping centre like hundreds of other shoppers.
But on Monday, they were the only ones picking up a cheque for €5,076,220 at the National Lottery offices. The group, who have chosen to remain anonymous, said they were “delighted” as they received their win but said they had no immediate plans for the money.
The lucky newsagent in Galway Shopping Centre is run by Stephen and Mary Day. Stephen said that the news has created a great buzz around the shop with both staff and customers “on a high”.
“Every person that is coming in is talking about it and excited about it. The general feel-good feeling that it’s created has been great, especially people coming in on Sunday asking if we knew who has won and checking people’s tickets. There was great excitement! It’s great to be talking about something positive for a change and something that is good for Galway.”
While the family has chosen to remain anonymous, the rumour mill has already kicked in locally and Stephen was sceptical that they will be able to keep the windfall under wraps.
“There’s been a few rumours around, but we don’t actually know who it is. We’ve been told they want to stay anonymous, but I don’t know how successful they are going to be with that. Galway’s a small town so it will be interesting to see how they get on with that! I’d say its hard to keep a low profile with €5 million so good luck to them with that plan!”